Sparks Fly, Ice Shatters
by Iceblossom22
Summary: Zutara Week 2010 by Sasha. With no help whatsoever, I present: Sparks Fly, Ice Shatters.
1. Family

It was a cool night, unusual during the Fire Nation Summer. Fire Lady Katara and Fire Lord Zuko were sleeping, or at least Zuko was. She had been trying to sleep for the past hour. Still, no effect. Suddenly, pain shot through her lower abdomen. She gripped her very swollen-Did I mention that she was almost 9 months pregnant- middle and shook her husband awake.

"Wake up!" she whispered.

"What... Honey, it's the middle of the night, go back to sleep." he mumbled.

"It's half past one in the morning. Zuko, it's time." she whispered urgently.

"For what?" he asked, drifting back off to sleep.

"The baby, you idiot!" she whisper-screamed.

"Alright, I'll go and get the midwife." he replied.

…..

Zuko was surprised to find both midwives awake. He didn't ask her why though.

"My lord, is Lady Katara all right?" asked the midwife worriedly.

"She's gone into labor." he replied.

"Well, then, excuse me for my bluntness my lord, but move it!" she said, already at the end of the corridor.

When they got back to the room, they found Katara reclining on the pillows, panting slightly.

"What's wrong, Tara?" asked Zuko.

"I'm sorry, Zu. My water broke and it just ruined your sheets." said Katara in between pants. "And I want to tell you this before I go into serious labor, I love you, Zu."

"I love you too. The sheets can be replaced." he replied nervously.

"Seeing as this is her first child, she'll probably only be done by afternoon.

A few hours passed. The sun peeped over the horizon. The contractions and Katara's groans of pain were getting more and more frequent, and but they knew that she was far from giving birth.

Zuko remembered two things from both Hakoda and Iroh. One, don't take her threats seriously. And two, don't look.

"Zuko! I HATE YOU! How could you do this to me?" Katara screamed.

A few moments passed and Katara let out a freakishly loud moan of pain.

"GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME! NOW!"

Toph, who had been visiting the palace for a few weeks woke up to that particular scream and decided to go help out.

Toph scurried up the stairs and into their room.

"Katara." panted Toph as she burst through the doors. (And we all know that Toph doesn't call her Katara unless the matter is absolutely... well... out of hand)

"Toph." Katara relaxed slightly seeing her best friend burst in through the doors.

"Katara, now, lay back there and _breathe_," instructed Toph.

Toph stayed in the room, but it did little to ease her pain. It only seemed to grow worse and more consuming as the long day wore on and her threats toward Zuko became increasingly violent. It was now about 10 in the morning.

"Zuko, AARGH! I'm going to _kill _you! I'm going to kill you for doing this to me! AUGH! And then I'm going to hunt down your reincarnations and kill them too!"

"That one was pretty good." commented Toph. She had been occupying, amusing would be a better word, herself with listening to Katara's lovely threats. Hopefully, she'd pick up some and use them on Aang when the time came.

"Miss Bei Fong, Please clear out of the room. It's time." said the midwife.

Toph did as was told. Rare but true.

"Now?" panted Katara.

"Yes, my lady. It's almost over."

"Now, push!" The midwife urged.

Katara grit her teeth, bearing down on the pain. Her hand that gripped Zuko's hand tightened unbearably. Zuko just managed to shut his mouth. Only just. After all, the pain Katara was in was much worse that what he's experiencing.

A few more minutes passed with Katara pushing and at the end of the last push, she wailed, nearly stopping Zuko's heart.

Tears streamed down her face.

"You're doing great, Katara. Just a little more." Zuko said. Actually, he had no idea what he was talking about.

It took several more minutes of agonizing waiting before something else happened. At the end of another push, the midwife announced. "That's the head. One more big push for the shoulders, my lady."

Katara cried out as she bore down one last time. With the combined effort of both Katara and the midwife, the small infant was coaxed free of its mother.

Katara collapsed back into the pillows as the other midwife took the infant and instantly began to clean it.

"My lady, you are not done yet." said the midwife, smiling.

"WHAT?" Katara screamed.

"My lady, you have twins. Now push."

After a few more minutes, the other child was finally free of its mother and was washed by the midwife.

Zuko let out a relieved sigh. He kissed his wife on the forehead. "You were great, Katara."

"Baby?" she whispered. Almost as she said it, both infants started to scream.

The midwives finished cleaning them off and wrapped them in red cloth. They gave the bunles to their parents. One to each.

"Congratulations, my lord, my lady. You have a healthy pair of twins. A boy and a girl." Then, they went out of the room, giving the new parents some "family time".

"Zuko." she whispered, holding her son. The infant already had a some black hair. They both finally calmed down enough to open their eyes. "He's perfect. Gold eyes, just like his daddy. Oh, Zuko. He looks just like you."

"She looks just like you." he said, bringing their daughter closer for Katara to see. The child had soft brown hair and cerulean eyes. "Beautiful. Just like her mother. And look at out son, oh, Katara he has your nose."

They both bust out laughing. "My nose?" Katara managed to choke out.

"Yes. And I love both of them."

"I think her hair will be straight when it grows out..." Katara whispered.

"Like mine." he said softly.

"Exactly."

"What will we name them?" asked Katara after a while.

"How's Izumi?"

"How about Azura?"

"I like it. Azura it is, then."

"Lee?"

"What, your alter ego?"

"Yes."

One midwife watched them through a jar in the door and smiled. They indeed were the _perfect family_.


	2. Change

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit.

-xXx- 

Zuko hated the water tribe peasant before he joined the avatar. But then, it struck him. _If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. _An old Fire Nation saying.

He looked at her in a different light. She had mastered her bending at the age of 14. Just like his prodigious sister. He realized that he was just jealous of her. Like he was his sister.

Then he imagined her cerulean orbs staring at his. Blazing like blue fire. He knew he wouldn't be able to live without those eyes.

It wasn't usual for a Fire Lord to fall in love with a Water Tribe girl. Princess or peasant. But times change. People change. Hearts change.

_'And his people would just have to live with change.'_ he thought as he fingered the betrothal necklace he made for her. 


	3. Pain

He took a lightning bolt for her. And he would do it again a hundred times over. Because the pain from the lightning bolt was nothing compared to the pain he felt as he saw Aang propose. He never saw Katara decline. He ran away from the scene, pain and torture evident in his face. Pain of heartbreak.


	4. Date

Katara was lying on her bed in the Fire Nation guest chambers. She had come as the Southern Water Tribe representative for the seasonal peace meetings. She was about to fall asleep when there was a knock at her door.

"Come in." she said.

Zuko walked in and sat next to her on the bed.

"Katara?"

"Hn?"

"Want to go walk along the beach?"

"You mean like a date?"

"I guess... Yeah."

"Of course."

-x-O-x-O-x-

So the two of them walked along the beach. Unbeknown to them, a certain chi blocker was watching the two moonlit silhouettes.

"Who would have guessed? Zuko and Katara, on a _date_, no less." she whispered from her hiding spot in a tree. "Give me some steam, guys!" she yelled.

The two sweethearts looked all around trying to find the person who spoiled their so-far-so-good date and failed.

_'Oh, well. Might as well do what she says.'_ the two of them thought as they kissed.

"Iroh wants his grandbabies!"

The two of them looked around frantically for Ty Lee who was happily sitting in a date tree, unseen.


	5. Balance

_Zuko and Katara,_

_Fire and water,_

_Stubborn and submissive,_

_Hot and cold,_

_Rash and level-headed,_

_Black and white,_

_Male and Female,_

_Yin and Yang._

The two of them cancel each other out. One's flaws for the other's perfections. They fit together like two pieces in a puzzle. They were like Yin and Yang, the balance of the universe, balancing the other out perfectly, like a match made in heaven. And they wouldn't have it any other way.

_-x-_

Sasha: Hey, guys. Go back and read date. I thought I posted it but apparently not.

Zuko: Hi.

Toph: Sup, Feather Feet?

Sokka: I don't wanna go train, Suki. *mumbles in sleep*

Zuko and Sasha: *Snort in laughter*

Sokka: *Wakes up* You two heard nothing.

Toph: Ok. But how about the readers?

Sokka: I'm being aired now? Oh damn! *runs away*

Sasha: *rolls eyes* So, Zuzu...

Zuko: I thought I told you not to call me that!

Sasha: Do I look like I care? So, like I was asking, how are the steambabies?

Sokka: *yells* YOU ARE DOING NOTHING TO MY BABY SISTER!

Zuko: Azura and Lee are fine. *whispers something into Sasha's ear*

Sasha: No way! Another steambaby incoming!

Toph: So... why is this one Balance? Isn't it supposed to be Harmony?

Sasha: Can't write anything for Harmony so I took up the original challenge.

Zuko: I see.

Toph: I don't.

Katara: ZUKO! WHERE ARE MY CHOCOLATES?

Zuko: *Scurries off with Sasha's box of chocolates*

Sasha: Zuko!

Toph: Let her have it. You don't want to be the next victim of her water whip.

Sasha: How is it that I didn't notice?

Toph: I have no idea, Feather Feet. Absolutely no idea.


	6. AU

.

It had been 3 days since Li had disappeared. That first day, Coast Guard helicopters had searched until dark, but could find no sign of the raft Li had last been seen on. The search resumed on subsequent days, in wider and wider circles from the point at which he had disappeared. It was hard to remain optimistic as the hours dragged by.

That evening, Katara went to the new house after the contractors had gone. They had finished most of the exterior work of their new house, and had shifted to the inside. Rolls of paper and cans of paint were stacked in the utility room. Li had selected most of it.

She climbed up the stairs to the second floor and went into Li's room. It already had a hollow, abandoned feeling. All the dreams she'd been having were ending in this nightmare. She had been a fool to think she could protect him, sanctuary or no. She'd been greedy, and this was the result.

If only Li had never gone to the Havens, if only she'd allowed him to leave the Sanctuary, to hide somewhere else. She pictured him huddled in the raft, flying through the darkness.

Katara sat on the floor in a corner of the room, wrapped her arms around her knees, and wept as the light faded.

After a while, she looked up, suddenly aware that she was no longer alone. Zuko Agni stood in the doorway, his face shrouded in shadow.

"So here you are," he said.

He crossed the room until he stood over her. He put out his hand and dropped something in her lap. It was a plastic bag containing two pictures, some wadded up cloth and a lock of hair, with a little curl to it. Hair that could belong to Zuko Agni, but didn't.

She looked at the pictures first. They had come off a computer printer. It was Li in a filthy blue shirt and jeans, looking warily at the camera. In one view, she could see that his hands were tied behind his back. She pulled the cloth from the bag. It was the shirt he had been wearing in the picture.

She looked up at Zuko, willing him to explain.

"Zhao contacted me. He's holding Li. He wants me to make a deal."

Li was alive! Katara's thoughts were swimming. Panic and hope and fear flooded her. _Why did Zhao contact Zuko?_

Zuko squatted so that his face was almost level with hers. Close. She pressed herself against the wall but could put no more distance between them.

"Now, here's the strange part. He told me he was holding my son." he paused. "And I was confused, as I don't have a son."

Katara looked away._ He knows the truth_. As soon as he heard it, he must have known. All the man ever needed was a clue. She was cornered in every way, literally, her back against the wall.

"I'm sorry, Zuko."

"You disappeared. I looked for you for more than a year. I nearly went crazy! Then, all of a sudden, as from the grave, you call me. All business." he made an irritated sound. "I guess you knew where I was the whole time."

She spoke hesitantly. "Well, you cut a rather wide path."

The man sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall next to Katara. He looked sideways at her. "You never told your family about the baby? Not even Sokka?"

She shook her head. "No one knows, except Suki. Aurelia LeClerc helped me. I knew her from some of the networks. I stayed with her until I delivered." Katara said. "She was great with Li."

"So you just went off and left him with this woman?" He intended it to be cruel, and it was.

"Li needed the kind of stability I couldn't provide. I couldn't risk anyone connecting him with us. It was the best thing to do." she added defensively.

"He should have been with his parents. You made that choice for the both of us. It wasn't fair. And it wasn't fair to Li."

"Can't you see that this is proof that I'm right? Someone's discovered his parentage and now he's paying for it." tears slid down her face. "I gave up everything to keep him safe. First you, then him."

Finally, fiercely scrubbing the tears away with the back of her hand, Katara asked. "What does Zhao want?"

"He wants me to travel to New York tomorrow, and come alone. He'll contact me there, and tell me the terms." he massaged his forehead as though it hurt. "You know, he thinks I'm the Dragon. He has for a long time. I've let him think it."

"What if he finds out you're not?"

"I don't know." he shrugged.

"Let me go meet Zhao. I'll talk to him. You know it's a trap." she said quickly.

"What makes you think you'd make an acceptable substitute?" he shook his head. "He doesn't see you as a political figure. Zhao just ends up with tow hostages instead of one. The letter was addressed to me. If I don't show tomorrow, Zhao says he'll mail me another piece of out son, this time, something that won't grow back."

Katara buried her face in her hands.

Zuko stroked her back, soothing her. "Besides, I've done nothing for the boy in 14 years. I want Li to know who his father is."

-x-

Sasha: Hi, guys. Any misspellings? Grammar errors? Please do tell. I'm writing this at 1:04 in the morning. Too sleepy to proofread. This one's loosely based on "The Wizard Heir" by Cinda Williams Chima.


	7. Sakura Storm

**Storms of Cherry Blossoms**

His classmate once asked curiously about cherry blossoms.

He vaguely remembered the last time he'd gone to view them—sometime after the war when _Katara _had compelled him to come along.

Its petals scattered like snow in the breeze. Some found their way upon her hair, but she had laughed, attempting instead to catch them in her hands.

It was a beautiful storm, he'd thought later on; he couldn't understand how he could have forgotten.

"Are they really that beautiful?" his classmate asked.

He thought of her and cherry petals in her hair.

_Yes._ "Yes, they are."


End file.
